Image of China improving steadily

China’s image is steadily improving on the world stage, with more developed countries recognizing its role in domestic and international affairs, according to a survey published on Jan 5.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the average approval rating for China’s image in the survey period, which covered 2016 and 2017, was 6.22－up slightly from 6.2 in 2015. Italy’s perception of China rose by 0.5 points to 6.58, while that of Canada and the United Kingdom both rose by 0.4 points, reaching 5.79 and 6.14, respectively.

These three developed countries saw the biggest improvement out of the 22 surveyed nations. More than 11,000 people participated in the survey, which was conducted by the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration and Kantar Millward Brown, a global market research company.

Developed countries’ average approval rating for China has been growing faster than that of developing countries in the past three years, the survey found. The average score from developed countries grew from 5 to 5.6 from 2014 to 2017, while the score from developing countries rose from 6.7 to 6.9 during the same period.

Survey participants ages 18 to 35 have the most positive views on China’s role in domestic and international affairs. Those in this age group are also the group most likely to visit or study in China in the near future, the survey found.

“China’s overall global image is gradually improving under the leadership of President Xi Jinping,” said Wang Gangyi, the deputy director of the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration.

Yu Yunquan, the deputy director at the administration’s Center for International Communication Studies, said China continues to be a driver of global economic growth, adding that around 33 percent of those interviewed said they expected China to become the world’s largest economy－a 9 percentage points jump from 2015.

In addition, high-speed trains, manned space mission technologies and supercomputers have become China’s top three most recognizable technologies in the world, the survey found.

The survey also noted reoccurring issues. For example, more than 60 percent of those surveyed still worried about the quality of Chinese products－a figure that has not changed in the past five years.

Cheng Manli, the president of the National Institute of Strategic Communication at Peking University, said product quality is extremely important because it directly affects people’s lives and their opinion of a country’s production and honesty.